Design Wire September 2021
The UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE recently received one of its largest donations ever, a cash gift of $5 million to go toward the construction of a visual arts and music center on its Portland campus. Gifted by the CREWE FOUNDATION, the Cumberland-based philanthropic institution founded by pop songwriter, singer, and record producer BOB CREWE— whose Top 10 singles include “Luck, Be a Lady Tonight” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry”—the center will contain a cutting-edge home for the visual arts as well as a new home for the university’s school of music. Still in the early planning stages, the project could break ground as early as spring 2023, according to a USM press release.
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Did you know that Osbourn Dorsey, the person who invented the doorknob, was African American? Or that in 1892 African American inventor Sarah Boone redesigned the ironing board? If not, the DIVERSITY IN DESIGN COLLABORATIVE, a group of 20 U.S.-based companies and organizations strategizing to increase racial diversity across all fields of design, wants to rectify that. The call for change is led by modern furniture group HERMAN MILLER, who proposes that meaningful strides will be made only with the collaboration of multiple brands. According to Dezeen, all members have pledged to create more career opportunities for Black designers and to offer grants to Black youth entering the creative industries. Want to get involved? Head to diversityindesign.com.
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Though some of us are more imaginative than others, often a pile of LEGO bricks doesn’t turn into much more than a leaning tower. That’s about to change with the creation of BRICKIT, a free app on iOS designed by a group of Lego fans that will scan your mound of bricks and offer specific plans for what you can build. Using object recognition to identify the types of Lego bricks present, the app will then suggest possible builds, like a puppy, truck, or airplane. (A writer at Fast Company suggests dumping the pile on the floor so the app can better recognize what’s there.) Choose one from the list, and not only will Brickit provide clear instructions, but it will also point out where you can find each piece in your pile.
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Milan-based agency KRILL DESIGN has created a dimmable lamp made from 3D-printed orange peels. By transforming the discarded Sicilian peels (Sicily produces around 3 percent of the world’s oranges) into a compostable biopolymer andcombining it with a base sourced from vegetable starches, Krill is able to produce the OHMIE LAMP. After seven prototypes, the lamp is now on sale for €59 (about $70) and comes with a USB dimmer cable and a fitted LED bulb. What’s next for Krill? The organic material developer hopes to create a coffee table made from coffee.
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Before now, visitors to COLBY COLLEGE in Waterville have had no option but to stay in lower-tier chain hotels. This will no longer be the case when the LOCKWOOD HOTEL, a 
project announced by Colby in 2016, opens next spring. The hotel with 53 rooms is one of several projects constituting a $70 million investment so far in downtown development, along with the Paul J. Schupf Art Center at 99 Main Street and Colby’s renovation of Ticonic Row into an arts collaborative and office space. The opening was originally scheduled for the fall but has been pushed to the spring in order for the school to house students who would, in normal times, be studying abroad this fall. However, the glass-flanked restaurant and bar, FRONT AND MAIN, which features dozens of Maine brands, is already open for business.
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ELIZABETH MOSS GALLERIES, a fine art gallery in Falmouth representing local modern artists, will be opening a second location in Portland at 100 Fore Street this month. The new commercial building, shared by WEX Incorporated and the Roux Institute, was developed by the Portland-based developer Jonathan Cohen, and the space itself was designed by Laura Zoulamis and Melanie Scamman at BOWERBIRD DESIGN. According to the gallery website, the Portland location “will express an edgier side of our represented artists, showcasing artists with national repute such as Leslie Parke, Hunt Slonem, and the late Lynne Drexler.”
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A major revamp of THE COLONY HOTEL, a Kennebunkport resort dating back to 1914, is in the review stages before the town’s planning board. The redesign would include renovation of the original building designed by the lauded nineteenth-century Maine architect John Calvin Stevens (also a major innovator of the shingle style), as well as some demolition and 18,000 square feet of new construction. 
The aesthetics of the new additions would reflect the Colony’s historic style while also adding modern facilities like an open-air market and eatery, meeting spaces, and a health club. The design and engineering team so far includes MARKET SQUARE ARCHITECTS, WRIGHT-RYAN of Portland, and WALSH ENGINEERING ASSOCIATES of Westbrook.
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According to Darshil Shah, the senior researcher at the CENTRE FOR NATURAL MATERIAL INNOVATION at the University of Cambridge, hemp fields capture atmospheric carbon twice as effectively as forests, making hemp one of the best CO2-to-biomass converters. This is great news for architects and designers wanting to use carbon-negative biomaterials as opposed to fiberglass composites, aluminum, and other products. The nimble plant, which has been grown for thousands of years for rope, textiles, and paper, can also be used to make bioplastic products like automotive parts and wind-turbine blades. Hemp is a variety of Cannabis sativa but contains very low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compared to marijuana, so cut the stigma and get growing!
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If you’ve walked the streets of Portland sometime since summer 2020—or, for that matter, ridden a city bus—you may have noticed that four bus shelters have been transformed into works of art. The Maine Project at St. John Street by Orson Horchler (aka Pigeon), Ebenezer Akakpo’s Hope and Friendship on Congress Street, Justin Levesque’s Glacial Retreat on Bedford Street, and David Wilson’s Seaweed Shelter on Thompson’s Point Road—all are part of the CREATIVE BUS SHELTER INITIATIVE, which hires local artists to “create public art on bus shelters, to spotlight public transit, and to evoke community joy.” The project was funded by a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts given to CREATIVE PORTLAND, GREATER PORTLAND METRO, and the GREATER PORTLAND COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS. Keep your eyes peeled for more spruced-up stops.